The Nazi Holocaust ― Its History and Meaning

The Nazi Holocaust is one of the most momentous events in human history. Yet, it remains on many levels a baffling and unfathomable mystery. By shunning simplistic ‘explanations’ Ronnie Landau has set out, in a clear, thought-provoking and enlightened fashion, to mediate betweeen this vast, often unapproachable subject and the reader who wrestles with its meaning. Locating the Holocaust within a number of different contexts—Jewish history, German history, genocide in the modern age, the larger story of human bigotry and the triumph of ideology over conscience—Landau penetrates to the very heart of its moral and historical significance.Deeply concerned lest the Holocaust, as a ‘unique’ phenomenon, be cordoned off from the rest of human history and ghettoized within the highly charged realm of ‘Jewish experience’, he is at pains to show that transmitting understanding of the Holocaust is about connecting with all humanity.Intended both for the general reader and for students and academics (especially in history, psychology, literature and the humanities), this work is an important breakthrough in the struggle to perpetuate the memory of a tragedy which the world is all too ready to forget.

Ronnie Landau is the former Educational Director of the Spiro Institute for the Study of Jewish History and Culture, Head of Humanities and Principal Lecturer at the City Literary Institute and Visiting Lecturer in Modern Jewish History at both Leo Baeck College and the International Study Centre of Queen’s University (Ontario). Founding Director of the British Holocaust Education Project, he currently teaches Classical languages at Sussex House School in London.